Google: Evil Purveyor of Digital Identity

filed under Crossover · 2 comments in the original

Google is truly a force that the majority of web users encounter in one form or another on a daily basis. It's dominance in the marketplace and constant push to innovate its technologies has been a comfort in many ways for many years.

Lately, however, I can't help but escape this hollowing feeling that the giant has become too enamored with itself and engulfed us in the process. Over the last couple of years, and especially in the last few months, Google has added a number of tools to its arsenal, purportedly because we, the users, needed/asked for them. What tools am I talking about? Consider:

Name Search - This is really not a tool so much as a consequence of their database. Enter your name, or the name of anyone that you want to investigate, and a quick and dirty list of online breadcrumbs is at your fingertips.
Phonebook Search - This service allows anyone to enter in a combination of name, phone number, or address and get back the Street Address and Phone Number associated (#)
Credit Card Number / Social Security Search - The newest member of the gang is actually a hack, but a serious one. By searching for credit card numbers or social security numbers, Google will show you the sites stupid enough to list that information. (#)

So what's the big deal, you might be asking. These things have been around for some time. I think the evil side of things is two-fold. On one front we have a collapse of our anonymity/privacy. As I mentioned before (see "The Many Faces of Our Digital Identity"), I've observed several different forms of Digital Identity. One method for examining those different identities is to consider the role of anonymity in them. For example, our Public Identities are the least secure in our minds as it is the information we announce to the world. On the other hand, our Protected Identities are guarded secrets that we selectively reveal. I made mention of Residual Identity as well. This was the Google-effect at work. The problem with the hooks Google provides is that it blurs the lines between our identities and personal spaces.

The other evil front has yet to surface, but lets play conspiracy theorist just once. The launch of services like Orkut which serve to map and model our relationships and interests coupled with localized searching and localized advertising (a la GMail) provides some interesting opportunities for bad things to happen. Realistically, I don't think Google would intentionally do this, but it doesn't mean that "bad things" can't happen. Already, the tools are in place for someone to re-assemble a great deal of information on anyone or any group of people.

Unfortunately for all of us, there's not much that can be done just yet. When GMail was announced we say all kinds of legal action spur out of it from privacy advocates and lawmakers. For now, we can only rely on Google's good senses and wait for the IPO to be over so this hiding-behind-the-quiet-period non-sense ends.